Snapshot rollback for synchronous replication

ABSTRACT

An aspect of performing rollback of a snapshot between a source storage system and a target storage system in a synchronous replication session includes reassigning a current replication source volume to a rollback source snapshot. The rollback source snapshot is generated for a consistency group that includes a plurality of volumes. An aspect also includes performing, for one or more snapshot trees maintained for the consistency group, a differential scan between a child of the rollback source snapshot and the current replication source volume, and calculating, from results of the differential scan, a dirty tree differential. For each difference identified in the dirty tree differential, an aspect further includes calculating a corresponding volume offset, and initiating a copy command for the current replication source volume and the rollback source snapshot. The copy command is translated to a remote metadata copy request in synchronous replication data transfer.

BACKGROUND

Many information processing systems are configured to replicate datafrom one storage system to another storage system, possibly at differentphysical sites. In some cases, such arrangements are utilized to supportdisaster recovery functionality within the information processingsystem. For example, an enterprise may replicate data from a productiondata center to a disaster recovery data center. In the event of adisaster at the production site, applications can be started at thedisaster recovery site using the data that has been replicated to thatsite so that the enterprise can continue its business.

Data replication in these and other contexts can be implemented usingasynchronous replication at certain times and synchronous replication atother times. For example, asynchronous replication may be configured toperiodically transfer data in multiple cycles from a source site to atarget site, while synchronous replication may be configured to mirrorhost writes from the source site to the target site as the writes aremade at the source site. Storage systems participating in a replicationprocess can therefore each be configured to support both asynchronousand synchronous replication modes.

Conventional approaches to data replication can be problematic undercertain conditions. For example, as synchronous replication datatransfer is triggered by input/output (IO) flow, and snapshot rollbackoperations are not part of IO handling, in order to rollback asynchronous replication source volume to an earlier snapshot, thesynchronous replication session needs to be halted in order to performthe rollback followed by restarting the synchronous replication session.If there is a lot of data residing in the synchronous replication sourcevolume, the restart of the synchronous replication session may triggerretransmission of a large quantity of data which can lead to a lengthygap in the associated data protection window.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described herein in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

One aspect provides a method for performing rollback of a snapshotbetween a source storage system and a target storage system in asynchronous replication session. The method includes reassigning acurrent replication source volume to a rollback source snapshot. Therollback source snapshot is generated for a consistency group thatincludes a plurality of volumes. The method also includes performing,for one or more snapshot trees maintained for the consistency group, adifferential scan between a child of the rollback source snapshot andthe current replication source volume, and calculating, from results ofthe differential scan, a dirty tree differential. For each differenceidentified in the dirty tree differential, the method further includescalculating a corresponding volume offset, and initiating a copy commandfor the current replication source volume and the rollback sourcesnapshot. The copy command is translated to a remote metadata copyrequest in synchronous replication data transfer.

Another aspect provides a system for performing rollback of a snapshotbetween a source storage system and a target storage system in asynchronous replication session. The system includes a memory comprisingcomputer-executable instructions, and a processor operable by a storagesystem. The processor is operable for executing the computer-executableinstructions. The computer-executable instructions when executed by theprocessor cause the processor to perform operations. The operationsinclude reassigning a current replication source volume to a rollbacksource snapshot. The rollback source snapshot is generated for aconsistency group that includes a plurality of volumes. The operationsalso include performing, for one or more snapshot trees maintained forthe consistency group, a differential scan between a child of therollback source snapshot and the current replication source volume, andcalculating, from results of the differential scan, a dirty treedifferential. For each difference identified in the dirty treedifferential, the operations further include calculating a correspondingvolume offset, and initiating a copy command for the current replicationsource volume and the rollback source snapshot. The copy command istranslated to a remote metadata copy request in synchronous replicationdata transfer.

A further aspect provides a computer program product for performingrollback of a snapshot between a source storage system and a targetstorage system in a synchronous replication session. The computerprogram product is embodied on a non-transitory computer readablemedium. The computer program product includes instructions that, whenexecuted by a computer, causes the computer to perform operations. Theoperations include reassigning a current replication source volume to arollback source snapshot. The rollback source snapshot is generated fora consistency group that includes a plurality of volumes. The operationsalso include performing, for one or more snapshot trees maintained forthe consistency group, a differential scan between a child of therollback source snapshot and the current replication source volume, andcalculating, from results of the differential scan, a dirty treedifferential. For each difference identified in the dirty treedifferential, the operations further include calculating a correspondingvolume offset, and initiating a copy command for the current replicationsource volume and the rollback source snapshot. The copy command istranslated to a remote metadata copy request in synchronous replicationdata transfer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Objects, aspects, features, and advantages of embodiments disclosedherein will become more fully apparent from the following detaileddescription, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings in whichlike reference numerals identify similar or identical elements.Reference numerals that are introduced in the specification inassociation with a drawing figure may be repeated in one or moresubsequent figures without additional description in the specificationin order to provide context for other features. For clarity, not everyelement may be labeled in every figure. The drawings are not necessarilyto scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating embodiments,principles, and concepts. The drawings are not meant to limit the scopeof the claims included herewith.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an information processing systemincluding source and target storage systems configured withfunctionality for snapshot rollback in a synchronous replication sessionaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a process for implementing snapshot rollbackin a synchronous replication session according to an embodiment;

FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate sample snapshot trees subject to respectivenormal and refreshed differential scan instances for a storage volumeaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 4 depicts a content addressable storage system having a distributedstorage controller configured with functionality for implementingsnapshot rollback in a synchronous replication session according to anembodiment;

FIG. 5 depicts a cloud infrastructure-based processing platform withphysical and virtual processing resources for implementing snapshotrollback in a synchronous replication session in accordance with anembodiment; and

FIG. 6 depicts an alternative processing platform for implementingsnapshot rollback in a synchronous replication session in accordancewith an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Performing rollback during a synchronous replication session providescertain challenges. As synchronous replication data transfer istriggered by input/output (IO) flow, and snapshot rollback operationsare not part of IO handling, in order to rollback a synchronousreplication source volume to an earlier snapshot, the synchronousreplication session needs to be halted in order to perform the rollbackfollowed by restarting the synchronous replication session. If there isa lot of data residing in the synchronous replication source volume, therestart of the synchronous replication session may triggerretransmission of a large quantity of data which can lead to a lengthygap in the associated data protection window. Illustrative embodimentsherein provide a storage system with functionality for improved snapshotrollback for snapshots generated for a consistency group of multiplestorage volumes that is subject to a synchronous replication processinvolving source and target storage systems. Embodiments provide forrollback during an ongoing synchronous replication session withoutrequiring termination and restart of the session.

FIG. 1 shows an information processing system 100 configured inaccordance with an illustrative embodiment. The information processingsystem 100 comprises a plurality of host devices 101, a source storagesystem 102S and a target storage system 102T (collectively referred toherein as “storage systems 102”), all of which are configured tocommunicate with one another over a network 104. The source and targetstorage systems 102 are more particularly configured in this embodimentto participate in a synchronous replication process in which one or morestorage volumes 110S are synchronously replicated from the sourcestorage system 102S to the target storage system 102T, possibly withinvolvement of at least one of the host devices 101. The one or morestorage volumes 110S that are synchronously replicated from the sourcestorage system 102S to the target storage system 102T may be part of adesignated consistency group.

Each of the storage systems 102 is illustratively associated with acorresponding set of one or more of the host devices 101. The hostdevices 101 illustratively comprise servers or other types of computersof an enterprise computer system, cloud-based computer system or otherarrangement of multiple compute nodes associated with respective users.

The host devices 101 in some embodiments illustratively provide computeservices such as execution of one or more applications on behalf of eachof one or more users associated with respective ones of the hostdevices. Such applications illustratively generate input/output (IO)operations that are processed by a corresponding one of the storagesystems 102. The term IO as used herein refers to at least one of inputand output. For example, IO operations may comprise write requestsand/or read requests directed to stored data of a given one of thestorage systems 102. The storage systems 102 illustratively includerespective processing devices of one or more processing platforms. Forexample, the storage systems 102 can each be configured as one or moreprocessing devices each having a processor and a memory, possiblyimplementing virtual machines and/or containers, although numerous otherconfigurations are possible. The storage systems 102 may be implementedon a common processing platform, or on separate processing platforms.

The host devices 101 are illustratively configured to write data to andread data from the storage systems 102 in accordance with applicationsexecuting on those host devices for system users.

As indicated above, the term “user” herein is intended to be broadlyconstrued to encompass numerous arrangements of human, hardware,software or firmware entities, as well as combinations of such entities.Compute and/or storage services may be provided for users under aPlatform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service(IaaS) model and/or a Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) model, although it isto be appreciated that numerous other cloud infrastructure arrangementscould be used. Also, illustrative embodiments can be implemented outsideof the cloud infrastructure context, as in the case of a stand-alonecomputing and storage system implemented within a given enterprise.

In embodiments, the network 104 forms part of a global computer networksuch as the Internet, although other types of networks can be part ofthe network 104, including a wide area network (WAN), a local areanetwork (LAN), a satellite network, a telephone or cable network, acellular network, a wireless network such as a WiFi or WiMAX network, orvarious portions or combinations of these and other types of networks.The network 104 in some embodiments therefore includes combinations ofmultiple different types of networks each including processing devicesconfigured to communicate using Internet Protocol (IP) or othercommunication protocols.

As a more particular example, some embodiments may utilize one or morehigh-speed local networks in which associated processing devicescommunicate with one another utilizing Peripheral Component Interconnectexpress (PCIe) cards of those devices, and networking protocols such asInfiniBand, Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel. Numerous alternativenetworking arrangements are possible in the embodiments, as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art.

The source storage system 102S includes a plurality of storage devices106S and an associated storage controller 108S. The storage devices 106Sstore the storage volumes 110S. The storage volumes 110S illustrativelyinclude respective logical units (LUNs) or other types of logicalstorage volumes.

Similarly, the target storage system 102T includes a plurality ofstorage devices 106T and an associated storage controller 108T. Thestorage devices 106T store storage volumes 110T, at least a portion ofwhich represent respective LUNs or other types of logical storagevolumes that are replicated from the source storage system 102S to thetarget storage system 102T in accordance with a synchronous replicationprocess.

The storage devices 106 of the storage systems 102 may be implemented assolid state drives (SSDs). Such SSDs are implemented using non-volatilememory (NVM) devices such as flash memory. Other types of NVM devicesthat can be used to implement at least a portion of the storage devices106 include non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), phase-change RAMPC-RAM) and magnetic RAM (MRAM). These and various combinations ofmultiple different types of NVM devices may also be used. For example,hard disk drives (HDDs) can be used in combination with or in place ofSSDs or other types of NVM devices.

However, it is to be appreciated that other types of storage devices canbe used in other embodiments. For example, a given storage system as theterm is broadly used herein can include a combination of different typesof storage devices, as in the case of a multi-tier storage systemcomprising a flash-based fast tier and a disk-based capacity tier. Insuch an embodiment, each of the fast tier and the capacity tier of themulti-tier storage system comprises a plurality of storage devices withdifferent types of storage devices being used in different ones of thestorage tiers.

For example, the fast tier may comprise flash drives or other types ofSSDs while the capacity tier comprises HDDs. The particular storagedevices used in a given storage tier may be varied in other embodiments,and multiple distinct storage device types may be used within a singlestorage tier. The term “storage device” as used herein is intended to bebroadly construed, to encompass, for example, SSDs, HDDs, flash drives,hybrid drives or other types of storage devices.

In some embodiments, at least one of the storage systems 102illustratively comprises a scale-out all-flash content addressablestorage array such as an XtremIO storage array available from Dell EMCof Hopkinton, Mass.

The term “storage system” as used herein is therefore intended to bebroadly construed and should not be viewed as being limited to contentaddressable storage systems or flash-based storage systems. A givenstorage system as the term is broadly used herein can comprise, forexample, network-attached storage (NAS), storage area networks (SANs),direct-attached storage (DAS) and distributed DAS, as well ascombinations of these and other storage types, includingsoftware-defined storage.

In some embodiments, communications between the host devices 101 and thestorage systems 102 comprise Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)commands. Other types of SCSI or non-SCSI commands may be used in otherembodiments, including commands that are part of a standard command set,or custom commands such as a “vendor unique command” or VU command thatis not part of a standard command set. The term “command” as used hereinis therefore intended to be broadly construed, to encompass, forexample, a composite command that comprises a combination of multipleindividual commands. Numerous other commands can be used in otherembodiments.

The storage controller 108S of source storage system 102S in the FIG. 1embodiment includes a synchronous replication control engine 112S and asnapshot generator 114S. Similarly, the storage controller 108T oftarget storage system 102T includes a synchronous replication controlengine 112T and a snapshot generator 114T. In some embodiments, one ormore of the host devices 101 may implement a corresponding synchronousreplication control engine 112H.

Although not explicitly shown in the Figure, additional components canbe included in the storage controllers 108, such as signature generatorsutilized in generating content-based signatures of data pages.

The instances of synchronous replication control engines 112H, 112S, and112T are collectively referred to herein as synchronous replicationcontrol engines 112. Such replication control engines are configured toimplement synchronous replication control logic (not shown). Thesynchronous replication control logic controls performance of thesynchronous replication process carried out between the storage systems,which as noted above in some embodiments further involves at least oneof the host devices 101. The data replicated from the source storagesystem 102S to the target storage system 102T can include all of thedata stored in the source storage system 102S, or only certaindesignated subsets of the data stored in the source storage system 102S,such as particular designated sets of LUNs or other logical storagevolumes. Different replication processes of different types can beimplemented for different parts of the stored data. Also, the storagesystems 102 can be configured to operate in different replication modesof different types at different times. A given storage volume designatedfor replication from the source storage system 102S to the targetstorage system 102T illustratively comprises a set of one or more LUNsor other instances of the storage volumes 110S of the source storagesystem 102S. Each such LUN or other storage volume illustrativelycomprises at least a portion of a physical storage space of one or moreof the storage devices 106S. The corresponding replicated LUN or otherstorage volume of the storage volumes 110T of the target storage system102T illustratively comprises at least a portion of a physical storagespace of one or more of the storage devices 106T.

The synchronous replication control logic in some embodiments isconfigured to control the performance of corresponding portions of asynchronous replication process of the type illustrated in the flowdiagram of FIG. 2. At least one of the host devices 101 in someembodiments can also include one or more instances of synchronousreplication control logic and possibly also one or more snapshotgenerators, as well as additional or alternative components such as asignature generator.

The storage controllers 108 and 108T of the storage systems 102 shouldalso be understood to include additional modules and other componentstypically found in implementations of storage controllers and storagesystems, although such additional modules and other components areomitted from the Figure for clarity and simplicity of illustration.

It will be assumed for the following description of the FIG. 1embodiment that there is an ongoing synchronous replication processbeing carried out between the source storage system 102S and the targetstorage system 102T (and in some instances one or more hosts 101) in thesystem 100, utilizing their respective instances of synchronousreplication control logic implemented by respective synchronousreplication control engines 112S and 112T, and alternatively 112H.

The synchronous replication process more particularly comprises aprocess in which a consistency group comprising one or more storagevolumes is replicated from the source storage system 102S to the targetstorage system 102T during a synchronous replication session in which 10data is mirrored between the source and target systems. The synchronousreplication is illustratively implemented at least in part by orotherwise under the control of the source and target synchronousreplication control engines 112S and 112T. Other types of replicationarrangements can be used in other embodiments.

The storage systems 102 in the FIG. 1 embodiment are assumed to beimplemented using at least one processing platform each comprising oneor more processing devices each having a processor coupled to a memory.Such processing devices can illustratively include particulararrangements of compute, storage and network resources.

The storage systems 102 may be implemented on respective distinctprocessing platforms, although numerous other arrangements are possible.At least portions of their associated host devices may be implemented onthe same processing platforms as the storage systems 102 or on separateprocessing platforms.

The term “processing platform” as used herein is intended to be broadlyconstrued so as to encompass, by way of illustration and withoutlimitation, multiple sets of processing devices and associated storagesystems that are configured to communicate over one or more networks.For example, distributed implementations of the system 100 are possible,in which certain components of the system reside in one data center in afirst geographic location while other components of the system reside inone or more other data centers in one or more other geographic locationsthat are potentially remote from the first geographic location. Thus, itis possible in some implementations of the system 100 for the storagesystems 102 to reside in different data centers. Numerous otherdistributed implementations of the storage systems 102 and theirrespective associated sets of host devices are possible.

Additional examples of processing platforms utilized to implementstorage systems and possibly their associated host devices inillustrative embodiments will be described in more detail below inconjunction with FIGS. 5 and 6.

It is to be appreciated that these and other features of illustrativeembodiments are presented by way of example only and should not beconstrued as limiting in any way.

Accordingly, different numbers, types and arrangements of systemcomponents such as host devices 101, storage systems 102, network 104,storage devices 106, storage controllers 108 and storage volumes 110 canbe used in other embodiments.

It should be understood that the particular sets of modules and othercomponents implemented in the system 100 as illustrated in FIG. 1 arepresented by way of example only. In other embodiments, only subsets ofthese components, or additional or alternative sets of components, maybe used, and such components may exhibit alternative functionality andconfigurations.

For example, in other embodiments, at least portions of theabove-described synchronous replication can be implemented in one ormore host devices, or partially in a host device and partially in astorage system. Illustrative embodiments are not limited to arrangementsin which all such functionality is implemented in source and targetstorage systems or a host device, and therefore encompass various hybridarrangements in which the functionality is distributed over one or morestorage systems and one or more associated host devices, each comprisingone or more processing devices. References herein to “one or moreprocessing devices” configured to implement particular operations orother functionality should be understood to encompass a wide variety ofdifferent arrangements involving one or more processing devices of atleast one storage system and/or at least one host device.

As another example, it is possible in some embodiments that the sourcestorage system and the target storage system can comprise differentportions of the same storage system. In such an arrangement, areplication process is illustratively implemented to replicate data fromone portion of the storage system to another portion of the storagesystem. The terms “source storage system” and “target storage system” asused herein are therefore intended to be broadly construed to encompasssuch possibilities.

The operation of the information processing system 100 will now bedescribed in further detail with reference to the flow diagram of theillustrative embodiment of FIG. 2, which implements a synchronousreplication process. The steps of the process illustratively involveinteractions between a source storage system and a target storagesystem, referred to as respective “source” and “target” in theseFigures, illustratively utilizing synchronous replication control logicinstances and snapshot generators of storage controllers of the sourceand target. For example, synchronous replication control logic of thesource interacts with synchronous replication control logic of thetarget in performing synchronous replication for a consistency group. Itis possible in other embodiments that at least one of the storagesystems does not include synchronous replication control logic and asnapshot generator, and in such embodiments these components are insteadimplemented in one or more host devices.

In a synchronous replication session, the source storage system 102Sgenerates a current snapshot set for a consistency group comprising aplurality of storage volumes subject to replication from the sourcestorage system 102S to the target storage system 102T, and may schedulea differential scan of the current snapshot set relative to a previoussnapshot set generated for the consistency group. The term “scheduling”as used herein is intended to be broadly construed, so as to encompass,for example, initiating, triggering or otherwise controlling performancea differential scan in conjunction with a given replication cycle.

It is assumed for the present embodiment that the given replicationcycle is a non-initial replication cycle of an ongoing synchronousreplication process, such that there is a previous snapshot set alreadyavailable from a previous cycle. In an initial replication cycle, theentire contents of the current snapshot set are illustrativelytransferred to from the source to the target, and differential scanningis not utilized. The current snapshot set for the initial replicationcycle becomes the previous snapshot set for the next replication cycle.

It is assumed for the present embodiment that the given replicationcycle is a non-initial replication cycle of an ongoing synchronousreplication process, such that there is a previous snapshot set alreadyavailable from a previous cycle. In an initial replication cycle, theentire contents of the current snapshot set are illustrativelytransferred to from the source to the target, and differential scanningis not utilized. The current snapshot set for the initial replicationcycle becomes the previous snapshot set for the next replication cycle.

The current snapshot set and other snapshot sets referred to in thecontext of some embodiments herein are illustratively generated for aconsistency group that comprises multiple storage volumes. A snapshottree of the consistency group in such embodiments illustrativelycomprises multiple individual snapshot trees for respective ones of thestorage volumes, each generally having the same topology of nodes.Accordingly, generation of a snapshot set for a consistency groupillustratively comprises generating a plurality of snapshots forrespective ones of the multiple storage volumes. Such snapshot sets andassociated versions of the consistency group vary over time and arerepresented by nodes of the snapshot tree of the consistency group.Again, the snapshot tree for the consistency group may be viewed asillustratively comprising multiple superimposed snapshot trees for therespective storage volumes of the consistency group with each suchstorage volume snapshot tree having substantially the same topology asthe consistency group snapshot tree.

A given one of the snapshot trees corresponding to a particular one ofthe storage volumes more particularly comprises a root node, at leastone branch node, and a plurality of leaf nodes, with a given one of thebranch nodes representing a particular version of the storage volumefrom which a corresponding snapshot is taken. A first one of the leafnodes which is a child of the given branch node represents a subsequentversion of the storage volume, and a second one of the leaf nodes whichis a child of the given branch node comprises the corresponding snapshotproviding a point-in-time (PIT) copy of the particular version of thestorage volume.

Illustrative examples of consistency group snapshot trees of the typedescribed above are shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B and will be described ingreater detail herein in conjunction with the flow diagram of FIG. 2.

In some embodiments, the snapshot trees comprise or are otherwiseassociated with additional information also arranged in the form of atree structure. For example, a given one of the snapshot trees may beassociated with one or more additional trees including at least one of a“dirty” tree that characterizes updates to logical addresses of thecorresponding storage volume, and a hash tree comprising content-basedsignatures of respective ones of the logical addresses of thecorresponding storage volume. All nodes of a given snapshot tree in someembodiments, including both branch nodes and leaf nodes, may each beassociated with corresponding metadata of both a dirty tree and a hashtree.

An instance of the differential scan performed for the given snapshottree in embodiments of this type can further comprise aggregatinginformation of at least one of the dirty tree and the hash tree betweenstart and stop nodes of the given snapshot tree. The start and stopnodes are examples of what are more generally referred to herein asfirst and second nodes corresponding to respective current and previoussnapshot sets. Start and stop nodes can comprise branch nodes or leafnodes associated with those branch nodes. Also, a given one of the firstand second nodes can comprise a leaf node rather than a branch node.Terms such as “start node,” “stop node,” “first node” and “second node”are therefore intended to be broadly construed and should not be viewedas being restricted to either branch nodes or leaf nodes.

A wide variety of other types of snapshot trees and possibly one or moreassociated additional trees can be used in other embodiments. Also, theterm “tree” as used herein is intended to be broadly construed tocomprise any type of data structure characterizing a plurality of nodesand a plurality of edges interconnecting respective pairs of the nodes.

The content-based signatures of the above-noted hash tree associatedwith a given storage volume in some embodiments comprise hash digests oftheir respective pages, each generated by application of a hash functionsuch as Secure Hashing Algorithm 1 (SHA1) to the content of itscorresponding page. Other types of secure hashing algorithms, such asSHA2 or SHA256, or more generally other hash functions, can be used ingenerating content-based signatures herein.

A given hash digest in illustrative embodiments is unique to theparticular content of the page from which it is generated, such that twopages with exactly the same content will have the same hash digest,while two pages with different content will have different hash digests.It is also possible that other types of content-based signatures may beused, such as hash handles of the type described elsewhere herein. Ahash handle generally provides a shortened representation of itscorresponding hash digest. More particularly, the hash handles areshorter in length than respective hash digests that are generated byapplying a secure hashing algorithm to respective ones of the datapages. Hash handles are considered examples of “content-basedsignatures” as that term is broadly used herein.

In embodiments in which the storage systems 102 comprise contentaddressable storage systems, address metadata is illustratively utilizedto provide content addressable storage functionality within thosesystems. The address metadata in some embodiments comprises at least aportion of one or more logical layer mapping tables that map logicaladdresses of respective ones of the data pages of the storage volume tocorresponding content-based signatures of the respective data pages.Examples of logical layer mapping tables and other metadata structuresmaintained by at least the storage controller 108T of target storagesystem 102T will be described elsewhere herein. The manner in which thesource storage system 102S processes the snapshot trees of respectivestorage volumes in conjunction with synchronous replication of theconsistency group will now be described in further detail.

For each of one or more snapshot trees maintained for the consistencygroup, the source storage system 102S determines if a first nodecorresponding to the previous snapshot set is an ancestor of a secondnode corresponding to the current snapshot set. The source storagesystem 102S then alters a manner in which an instance of thedifferential scan is performed for the snapshot tree responsive to aresult of the determination. The first and second nodes may comprise,for example, respective branch nodes of the snapshot tree.Alternatively, at least one of the first and second nodes may comprise aleaf node. The differential scan process is further described incommonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/357,957 entitled“Storage System with Differential Scanning of Non-Ancestor SnapshotPairs in Asynchronous Replication,” which was filed on Mar. 19, 2019,the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference it theirentirety.

In some embodiments, for example, the current snapshot set is derivedfrom a restored version of at least a portion of the consistency group,such that the first node corresponding to the previous snapshot set isnot an ancestor of the second node corresponding to the current snapshotset. Such situations can arise, for example, when one or more storagevolumes have been restored to previous versions during an ongoingreplication process. Illustrative embodiments advantageously allowefficient differential scanning to be performed in these and othersituations in which the first node is not an ancestor of the secondnode.

Determining if the first node corresponding to the previous snapshot setis an ancestor of the second node corresponding to the current snapshotset in some embodiments more particularly comprises inspecting a pathfrom the second node towards a root node of the snapshot tree.Responsive to the first node being part of the path, a determination ismade that the first node is an ancestor of the second node. Responsiveto the first node not being part of the path, a determination is madethat the first node is not an ancestor of the second node. The firstnode is illustratively considered “part of the path” if it isencountered in traversing the path and is otherwise not considered “partof the path.”

In some embodiments, altering a manner in which an instance of thedifferential scan is performed for the snapshot tree responsive to aresult of the determination includes performing a first type ofdifferential scan comprising aggregating node metadata of a path fromthe second node to the first node responsive to the first node being anancestor of the second node, and performing a second type ofdifferential scan different than the first type of differential scanresponsive to the first node not being an ancestor of the second node.For example, the second type of differential scan illustrativelycomprises identifying a first path from the first node to a root node,identifying a second path from the second node to the root node,determining a lowest common ancestor between the first and second paths,combining the first and second paths at the lowest common ancestor, andaggregating node metadata of the combined first and second paths. In theabove-described instance of the differential scan, the aggregatedmetadata is utilized to determine all changed data pages of each storagevolume of the consistency group between the current and previoussnapshot sets. The resulting differential data is provided from thesource storage system 102S to the target storage system 102T.

The instance of the differential scan is therefore illustrativelyperformed by the source storage system 102S in the given replicationcycle of the consistency group. In addition, results of performing theinstance of the differential scan are transmitted from the sourcestorage system 102S to the target storage system in the givenreplication cycle.

As mentioned previously, the term “storage volume” as used herein isintended to be broadly construed and should not be viewed as beinglimited to any particular format or configuration. The term “consistencygroup” as used herein is also intended to be broadly construed and maycomprise one or more storage volumes.

A more particular example of the differential scanning functionalitydescribed above will now be presented. In this example, the replicationcontrol logic instances 112S and 112T are assumed to cooperate tofacilitate differential scanning of non-ancestor snapshot pairs inconjunction with ongoing synchronous replication from the source to thetarget. Like other embodiments herein, the process utilized in thepresent example advantageously provides efficient differential scanningeven in those situations in which one or more storage volumes have beensubject to restoration from a previous snapshot as part of an ongoingsynchronous replication process.

In the present example, it is assumed that the source and target storagesystems 102 are configured via their respective instances of replicationcontrol logic to perform efficient differential scanning in situationsin which the first node is an ancestor of the second node, including thesituation illustrated in FIG. 3A. The efficient differential scanninggenerally involves aggregating node metadata between the first andsecond nodes, using the above-described dirty trees and hash trees whichfully characterize any data changes between the corresponding snapshots.Such node metadata provides all the information needed to perform thedifferential scanning in a particularly efficient manner, therebyenhancing the performance of the overall synchronous replicationprocess.

The illustrative embodiments allow such efficient differential scanningto also be performed even in those situations in which the first node isnot an ancestor of the second node, including the situation illustratedin FIG. 3B. This includes situations in which one or more storagevolumes of the consistency group are “refreshed” or otherwise restoredto previous versions during the ongoing synchronous replication process,also referred to herein as “live” restoration of the one or more storagevolumes.

Turning now to FIG. 2, a flow diagram describing a process 200 forperforming rollback of a snapshot between a source storage system and atarget storage system during a synchronous replication session will nowbe described according to embodiments.

In block 202, the process 200 suspends host input/output (IO) operations(e.g., from one of the hosts 101 to the storage system 102S). In block204, the process 200 reassigns a current replication source volume(e.g., one of storage volumes 110) to a rollback source snapshot. Therollback source snapshot reflects a snapshot taken at an earlier pointin time and to which the process seeks to roll back the source volume.The rollback source snapshot may be generated for a consistency groupthat includes a plurality of storage volumes subject to the synchronousreplication session. Upon reassigning the current replication sourcevolume to the rollback source snapshot, a child of the rollback sourcesnapshot inherits a volume identifier of the current replication sourcevolume, and the current replication source volume receives a new volumeidentifier. For example, when a volume is newly created, it is assignedan external volume ID (e.g., sid) 1 and internal volume id (iid) 2. Atsome point in time, a snapshot is created with external ID (sid)-1 andinternal volume ID (iid) 5. Sid-1 is invalid, meaning it is not exposedto the host. Upon determining a snap reassignment should be performed,the snapshot is given the external ID 1, and the internal ID remains as5. The original volume is assigned a new extern ID iid10. The system maydecide to keep the volume with the external ID 10 or delete it. From thehost point of view, it will see the volume with the external ID 1 havingthe content of iid 5.

In block 206, a differential scan is performed for one or more snapshottrees maintained for the consistency group. The differential scan isperformed between a child of the rollback source snapshot and thecurrent replication source volume. The differential scan may beimplemented via the techniques described above and referenced in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/357,957. In block 208, the process 200calculates a dirty tree differential from results of the differentialscan.

The dirty tree of a volume may be implemented as a bitmap tree todescribe which blocks have been written/allocated for the volume. Eachvolume owns its own dirty tree. In the snapshot case, the original dirtytree of the volume is transferred to the snap, and the new dirty tree ofthe volume after snap describes blocks that have been changed sincesnapshot taken. When the dirty tree differential is calculated between avolume and a snap, we accumulate the dirty tree bitmap changes betweenthe volume and snap, the resulting bitmap describes all the blocks thatare different between a volume and its snap.

A given one of the above-identified snapshot trees is associated withone or more additional trees including at least one of the dirty treethat characterizes updates to logical addresses of a corresponding oneof the storage volumes, and a hash tree that includes content-basedsignatures of respective ones of the logical addresses of thecorresponding storage volumes. As indicated above, an instance of thedifferential scan performed for the snapshot trees includes aggregatinginformation of at least one of the dirty tree and the hash tree betweendesignated nodes of the one or more snapshot trees.

As described, e.g., in the above-referenced U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/357,957, performing the differential scan includes determining ifa first node to a previous snapshot is an ancestor of a second nodecorresponding to the current replication source volume. Thisdetermination is implemented by inspecting a path from the second nodetowards a root node of the snapshot tree, responsive to the first nodebeing part of the path, determining that the first node is an ancestorof the second node, and responsive to the first node not being part ofthe path, determining that the first node is not an ancestor of thesecond node.

Performing the differential scan further includes altering a manner inwhich an instance of the differential scan is performed for the snapshottrees responsive to a result of the determination. This alteringincludes performing a first type of differential scan comprisingaggregating node metadata of a path from the second node to the firstnode responsive to the first node being an ancestor of the second node,and performing a second type of differential scan different than thefirst type of differential scan responsive to the first node not beingan ancestor of the second node. The second type of differential scanincludes identifying a first path from the first node to a root node,identifying a second path from the second node to the root node,determining a lowest common ancestor between the first and second paths,combining the first and second paths at the lowest common ancestor; andaggregating node metadata of the combined first and second paths.

Blocks 210-212 are performed for each difference identified in the dirtytree differential. In block 210, a volume offset is calculated. Thevolume offset is used as described further herein. In block 212, theprocess 200 initiates a copy command for current replication sourcevolume and the rollback source snapshot. The copy command is translatedto a remote metadata copy request in a synchronous replication datatransfer. Initiation and execution of the copy command is describedfurther in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/177,782entitled “Method to Support Hash Based XCopy Synchronous Replication,”which was filed on Nov. 1, 2018, the contents of which are incorporatedherein in their entirety.

In an embodiment, the copy command is a Small Computer System Interface(SCSI)-based extended copy command that includes the volume offset,e.g., from block 210, a source logical unit, a source logical blockaddress range, a target logical unit, and a target logical block addressrange. In embodiments, the copy command is received from an initiator(e.g., from the synchronous replication control engine 112S of FIG. 1 atthe source or from the synchronous replication control engine 112Himplemented by the host device 101) and is executed by the targetstorage system (e.g., system 102T). Completion of the copy command foreach difference in the dirty tree differential results in the targetstorage system containing identical content as the source storage systemafter the rollback (e.g., the target uses the differential data to keepits version updated and consistent with the source).

Once the rollback operations are completed, the host is notified andhost IO access to synchronous replication is resumed on the sourcevolume in block 214.

FIG. 3A shows an example of a snapshot tree 300-1 for the consistencygroup that includes the selected storage volume. Such a snapshot treeillustratively represents a combination of multiple superimposedsnapshot trees for respective ones of the storage volumes of theconsistency group, with each of the storage volume snapshot trees havingsubstantially the same format as the snapshot tree 300-1. Thus, althoughthe snapshot tree format illustrated in the Figure is for a consistencygroup, it is also representative of multiple individual snapshot treesfor respective storage volumes of the consistency group. A given suchsnapshot tree for the selected storage volume is subject to the firsttype of differential scan.

The snapshot tree 300-1 comprises a root node and a plurality of branchnodes denoted CGn-2, CGn-1, CGn and CG. The root node represents aversion of the consistency group from which an initial point-in-time(PIT) copy is captured as snapshot set S0. The branch nodes CGn-2, CGn-1and CGn represent subsequent versions of the consistency group fromwhich respective PIT copies are captured as subsequent snapshot setsSn-2, Sn-1 and Sn, as the storage volumes of the consistency groupchange over time responsive to execution of IO operations. The snapshotsets Sn-1 and Sn are associated with respective previous and currentreplication cycles denoted as cycle n−1 and cycle n.

A given storage volume snapshot tree having a format of the type shownin FIG. 3A represents a storage volume and its snapshots over time. Eachleaf node represents a particular version of the storage volume or asnapshot of the storage volume, and each branch node represents a sharedancestor between a version of the storage volume, a snapshot of thestorage volume, or a child branch node. When a given snapshot of thestorage volume is created, two child leaf nodes are created, onerepresenting new updates to the storage volume after creation of thesnapshot, and the other representing the snapshot. The volume node fromwhich the snapshot was created therefore becomes a branch node in thesnapshot tree. When a given snap set of the consistency group is createdfor its member storage volumes, two new leaf nodes are created in eachof the snapshot trees of the respective storage volumes.

The given storage volume snapshot tree having a format of the type shownin FIG. 3A illustratively corresponds to a particular storage volumethat has not been subject to live restoration during the replicationprocess. The instance of the differential scan performed in this exampleutilizes as its start node the non-root node corresponding to snapshotset Sn-1 of the previous replication cycle and utilizes as its stop nodethe non-root node corresponding to snapshot set Sn of the current cycle.These start and stop nodes are associated with respective branch nodesCGn-1 and CGn. References herein to first and second nodes inillustrative embodiments refer to respective branch nodes of a snapshottree. A given such branch node generally has at least one correspondingleaf node. It is also possible that at least one of the first and secondnodes can alternatively comprise a leaf node.

A second type of differential scan is performed by aggregating nodemetadata for paths combined at a lowest common ancestor in the mannerdescribed elsewhere herein. It is to be appreciated that terms such as“aggregating” and “aggregate” as used herein are intended to be broadlyconstrued, and can include multiple different types of aggregation, suchas aggregation of dirty tree metadata followed by aggregation of hashtree metadata, with each such aggregation type possibly proceeding indifferent directions through at least portions of a given node chain andin some cases involving different node chains potentially havingdifferent sets of nodes.

FIG. 3B shows an example of a snapshot tree 300-2 that is subject to thesecond type of differential scan. The snapshot tree 300-2 has astructure similar to that of snapshot tree 300-1, but the consistencygroup was “refreshed” or otherwise restored to a previous versioncorresponding to snapshot set Sn-m′ during the ongoing replicationprocess. In this example, snapshot set Sn-1 represents a previoussnapshot set generated for the consistency group in replication cyclen−1. It is apparent that, at some point after generation of the snapshotset Sn-1, the consistency group was restored using snapshot set Sn-m′which was generated from the version of the consistency grouprepresented by branch node CGn-m′. Snapshot set Sn-m is a snapshot setgenerated from the consistency group as restored using snapshot setSn-m′. Branch node CGn′ represents a version of the consistency groupsubsequent to the restoration, from which snapshot set Sn is generatedin cycle n of the replication process. Any changes to the storagevolumes of the consistency group after generation of snapshot set Sn arereflected in the current version denoted by node CG.

The snapshot set Sn in this example is therefore a current snapshot set,and the snapshot set Sn-1 is a previous snapshot set, but the branchnode CGn-1′ corresponding to the previous snapshot set Sn-1 is not anancestor of the branch node CGn′ corresponding to the current snapshotset Sn. The branch nodes CGn-‘ and CGn’ are representative of what aremore generally referred to herein as respective first and second nodescorresponding to respective previous and current snapshot sets.

As indicated above, the second type of differential scan in this examplecombines paths from the first node to the root node and from the secondnode to the root node, at a lowest common ancestor illustrativelyrepresented by the branch node CGn-m′ in this example, and aggregatesnode metadata for the combined path in the manner described elsewhereherein.

A combined path for aggregation of node metadata in the FIG. 3B exampleillustratively comprises the branch nodes CGn-1′, . . . CGn-m′, Sn-m′,and CGn′. The combined path in some embodiments can additionally includethe leaf nodes Sn-1 and Sn corresponding to respective branch nodesCGn-1‘ and CGn’. In some implementations, this combined path is used foraggregation of dirty tree metadata, and a different combined path isused for aggregation of hash tree metadata. For example, the hash treemetadata is illustratively aggregated along a combined path thatincludes nodes CGn′, Sn-m′, CGn-m′ . . . Root. Numerous otherarrangements are possible.

Terms such as “root node” and “non-root node,” “start node” and “stopnode,” and “first node” and “second node” as used herein are allintended to be broadly construed. A non-root node is considered to beany snapshot tree node that is not a root node. Start node and stop nodedesignations for a given snapshot tree in some embodiments can bereversed relative to the designation arrangements referred to above inconjunction with the examples of FIGS. 3A and 3B. Accordingly, suchterms should not be construed as requiring a particular directionalityfor scanning the snapshot tree. It should also be understood that a widevariety of other snapshot tree arrangements may be used.

The particular processing operations and other system functionalitydescribed in conjunction with the flow diagram of FIG. 2 are presentedby way of illustrative example only and should not be construed aslimiting the scope of the disclosure in any way. Alternative embodimentscan use other types of processing operations to provide efficientdifferential scanning of non-ancestor snapshots in conjunction withsynchronous replication. For example, the ordering of the process stepsmay be varied in other embodiments, or certain steps may be performed atleast in part concurrently with one another rather than serially. Also,one or more of the process steps may be repeated periodically, ormultiple instances of the process can be performed in parallel with oneanother in order to implement a plurality of different synchronousreplication processes for respective different consistency groupscomprising different sets of storage volumes or for different storagesystems or portions thereof within a given information processingsystem.

Functionality such as that described in conjunction with the flowdiagram of FIG. 2 can be implemented at least in part in the form of oneor more software programs stored in memory and executed by a processorof a processing device such as a computer or server. As will bedescribed below, a memory or other storage device having executableprogram code of one or more software programs embodied therein is anexample of what is more generally referred to herein as a“processor-readable storage medium.”

For example, storage controllers such as storage controllers 108 ofstorage systems 102 that are configured to control performance of one ormore steps of the FIG. 2 process in their corresponding system 100 canbe implemented as part of what is more generally referred to herein as aprocessing platform comprising one or more processing devices eachcomprising a processor coupled to a memory. A given such processingdevice may correspond to one or more virtual machines or other types ofvirtualization infrastructure. The storage controllers 108, as well asother system components, may be implemented at least in part usingprocessing devices of such processing platforms. For example, in adistributed implementation of a given one of the storage controllers108, respective distributed modules of such a storage controller can beimplemented in respective containers running on respective ones of theprocessing devices of a processing platform.

In some implementations of the FIG. 2 process, the source and targetstorage systems comprise content addressable storage systems configuredto maintain various metadata structures that are utilized in thedifferential scanning. Examples of metadata structures maintained by thesource and target storage systems in illustrative embodiments includethe logical layer and physical layer mapping tables described below. Itis to be appreciated that these particular tables are only examples, andother tables or metadata structures having different configurations ofentries and fields can be used in other embodiments.

An address-to-hash (“A2H”) utilized in some embodiments comprises aplurality of entries accessible utilizing logical addresses asrespective keys, with each such entry of the A2H table comprising acorresponding one of the logical addresses, a corresponding hash handle,and possibly one or more additional fields.

A hash-to-data (“H2D”) table utilized in some embodiments comprises aplurality of entries accessible utilizing hash handles as respectivekeys, with each such entry of the H2D table comprising a correspondingone of the hash handles, a physical offset of a corresponding one of thedata pages, and possibly one or more additional fields.

A hash metadata (“HMD”) table utilized in some embodiments comprises aplurality of entries accessible utilizing hash handles as respectivekeys. Each such entry of the HMD table comprises a corresponding one ofthe hash handles, a corresponding reference count and a correspondingphysical offset of one of the data pages. A given one of the referencecounts denotes the number of logical pages in the storage system thathave the same content as the corresponding data page and therefore pointto that same data page via their common hash digest. The HMD table mayalso include one or more additional fields.

A physical layer based (“PLB”) table utilized in some embodimentsillustratively comprises a plurality of entries accessible utilizingphysical offsets as respective keys, with each such entry of the PLBtable comprising a corresponding one of the physical offsets, acorresponding one of the hash digests, and possibly one or moreadditional fields.

As indicated above, the hash handles are generally shorter in lengththan the corresponding hash digests of the respective data pages, andeach illustratively provides a short representation of the correspondingfull hash digest. For example, in some embodiments, the full hashdigests are 20 bytes in length, and their respective corresponding hashhandles are illustratively only 4 or 6 bytes in length.

Also, it is to be appreciated that terms such as “table” and “entry” asused herein are intended to be broadly construed, and the particularexample table and entry arrangements described above can be varied inother embodiments. For example, additional or alternative arrangementsof entries can be used.

As indicated above, in some embodiments, the storage system may comprisean XtremIO storage array or other type of content addressable storagesystem suitably modified to incorporate functionality for differentialscanning of non-ancestor snapshots in conjunction with an ongoingsynchronous replication process as disclosed herein.

An illustrative embodiment of such a content addressable storage systemwill now be described with reference to FIG. 4. In this embodiment, acontent addressable storage system 405 comprises a plurality of storagedevices 406 and an associated storage controller 408. The contentaddressable storage system 405 may be viewed as a particularimplementation of a given one of the storage systems 102, andaccordingly is assumed to be coupled to the other one of the storagesystems 102 and to one or more host devices of a computer system withininformation processing system 100.

Although it is assumed that both the source storage system 102S and thetarget storage system 102T are content addressable storage systems insome embodiments, other types of storage systems can be used for one orboth of the source storage system 102S and the target storage system102T in other embodiments. For example, it is possible that at least oneof the storage systems 102 in an illustrative embodiment need not be acontent addressable storage system and need not include an ability togenerate content-based signatures. In such an embodiment, at leastportions of the differential scanning functionality of the one or morestorage systems can be implemented in a host device.

The storage controller 408 in the present embodiment is configured toimplement functionality for efficient differential scanning ofnon-ancestor snapshots of the type previously described in conjunctionwith FIGS. 1 through 3. For example, the content addressable storagesystem 405 illustratively participates as a source storage system in asynchronous replication process with a target storage system that may beimplemented as another instance of the content addressable storagesystem 405.

The storage controller 408 includes distributed modules 412 and 414,which are configured to operate in a manner similar to that describedabove for respective corresponding replication control logic 112 andsnapshot generators 114 of the storage controllers 108 of system 100.Module 412 is more particularly referred to as distributed replicationcontrol logic, and illustratively comprises multiple replication controllogic instances on respective ones of a plurality of distinct nodes.Module 414 is more particularly referred to as a distributed snapshotgenerator, and illustratively comprises multiple snapshot generationinstances on respective ones of the distinct nodes.

The content addressable storage system 405 in the FIG. 4 embodiment isimplemented as at least a portion of a clustered storage system andincludes a plurality of storage nodes 415 each comprising acorresponding subset of the storage devices 406. Such storage nodes 415are examples of the “distinct nodes” referred to above, and otherclustered storage system arrangements comprising multiple storage nodesand possibly additional or alternative nodes can be used in otherembodiments. A given clustered storage system may therefore include notonly storage nodes 415 but also additional storage nodes, compute nodesor other types of nodes coupled to network 104. Alternatively, suchadditional storage nodes may be part of another clustered storage systemof the system 100. Each of the storage nodes 415 of the storage system405 is assumed to be implemented using at least one processing devicecomprising a processor coupled to a memory.

The storage controller 408 of the content addressable storage system 405is implemented in a distributed manner to comprise a plurality ofdistributed storage controller components implemented on respective onesof the storage nodes 415. The storage controller 408 is therefore anexample of what is more generally referred to herein as a “distributedstorage controller.” In subsequent description herein, the storagecontroller 408 is referred to as distributed storage controller 408.

Each of the storage nodes 415 in this embodiment further comprises a setof processing modules configured to communicate over one or morenetworks with corresponding sets of processing modules on other ones ofthe storage nodes 415. The sets of processing modules of the storagenodes 415 collectively comprise at least a portion of the distributedstorage controller 408 of the content addressable storage system 405.

The modules of the distributed storage controller 408 in the presentembodiment more particularly comprise different sets of processingmodules implemented on each of the storage nodes 415. The set ofprocessing modules of each of the storage nodes 415 comprises at least acontrol module 408C, a data module 408D and a routing module 408R. Thedistributed storage controller 408 further comprises one or moremanagement (“MGMT”) modules 408M. For example, only a single one of thestorage nodes 415 may include a management module 408M. It is alsopossible that management modules 408M may be implemented on each of atleast a subset of the storage nodes 415. A given set of processingmodules implemented on a particular one of the storage nodes 415therefore illustratively includes at least one control module 408C, atleast one data module 408D and at least one routing module 408R, andpossibly a management module 408M.

Communication links may be established between the various processingmodules of the distributed storage controller 408 using well-knowncommunication protocols such as IP, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP),and remote direct memory access (RDMA). For example, respective sets ofIP links used in data transfer and corresponding messaging could beassociated with respective different ones of the routing modules 408R.

Although shown as separate modules of the distributed storage controller408, the modules 412 and 414 in the present embodiment are assumed to bedistributed at least in part over at least a subset of the other modules408C, 408D, 408R and 408M of the storage controller 408. Accordingly, atleast portions of the differential scanning functionality of the modules412 and 414 may be implemented in one or more of the other modules ofthe storage controller 408. In other embodiments, the modules 412 and414 may be implemented as stand-alone modules of the storage controller408.

The storage devices 406 are configured to store metadata pages 420 anduser data pages 422 and may also store additional information notexplicitly shown such as checkpoints and write journals. The metadatapages 420 and the user data pages 422 are illustratively stored inrespective designated metadata and user data areas of the storagedevices 406. Accordingly, metadata pages 420 and user data pages 422 maybe viewed as corresponding to respective designated metadata and userdata areas of the storage devices 406. A given “page” as the term isbroadly used herein should not be viewed as being limited to anyparticular range of fixed sizes. In some embodiments, a page size of 8kilobytes (KB) is used, but this is by way of example only and can bevaried in other embodiments. For example, page sizes of 4 KB, 16 KB orother values can be used. Accordingly, illustrative embodiments canutilize any of a wide variety of alternative paging arrangements fororganizing the metadata pages 420 and the user data pages 422.

The user data pages 422 are part of a plurality of LUNs configured tostore files, blocks, objects or other arrangements of data, each alsogenerally referred to herein as a “data item,” on behalf of users of thecontent addressable storage system 405. Each such LUN may compriseparticular ones of the above-noted pages of the user data area. The userdata stored in the user data pages 422 can include any type of user datathat may be utilized in the system 100. The term “user data” herein istherefore also intended to be broadly construed.

A given storage volume for which content-based signatures are generatedusing modules 412 and 414 illustratively comprises a set of one or moreLUNs, each including multiple ones of the user data pages 422 stored instorage devices 406. The content addressable storage system 405 in theembodiment of FIG. 4 is configured to generate hash metadata providing amapping between content-based digests of respective ones of the userdata pages 422 and corresponding physical locations of those pages inthe user data area. Content-based digests generated using hash functionsare also referred to herein as “hash digests.” Such hash digests orother types of content-based digests are examples of what are moregenerally referred to herein as “content-based signatures” of therespective user data pages 422. The hash metadata generated by thecontent addressable storage system 405 is illustratively stored asmetadata pages 420 in the metadata area. The generation and storage ofthe hash metadata is assumed to be performed under the control of thestorage controller 408.

Each of the metadata pages 420 characterizes a plurality of the userdata pages 422. For example, a given set of user data pages representinga portion of the user data pages 422 illustratively comprises aplurality of user data pages denoted User Data Page 1, User Data Page 2,. . . User Data Page n. Each of the user data pages in this example ischaracterized by a LUN identifier, an offset and a content-basedsignature. The content-based signature is generated as a hash functionof content of the corresponding user data page. Illustrative hashfunctions that may be used to generate the content-based signatureinclude the above-noted SHA1 secure hashing algorithm, or other securehashing algorithms known to those skilled in the art, including SHA2,SHA256 and many others. The content-based signature is utilized todetermine the location of the corresponding user data page within theuser data area of the storage devices 406.

Each of the metadata pages 420 in the present embodiment is assumed tohave a signature that is not content-based. For example, the metadatapage signatures may be generated using hash functions or other signaturegeneration algorithms that do not utilize content of the metadata pagesas input to the signature generation algorithm. Also, each of themetadata pages is assumed to characterize a different set of the userdata pages.

A given set of metadata pages representing a portion of the metadatapages 420 in an illustrative embodiment comprises metadata pages denotedMetadata Page 1, Metadata Page 2, . . . Metadata Page m, havingrespective signatures denoted Signature 1, Signature 2, . . . Signaturem. Each such metadata page characterizes a different set of n user datapages. For example, the characterizing information in each metadata pagecan include the LUN identifiers, offsets and content-based signaturesfor each of the n user data pages that are characterized by thatmetadata page. It is to be appreciated, however, that the user data andmetadata page configurations described above are examples only, andnumerous alternative user data and metadata page configurations can beused in other embodiments.

Ownership of a user data logical address space within the contentaddressable storage system 405 is illustratively distributed among thecontrol modules 408C.

The differential scanning functionality provided by modules 412 and 414in this embodiment is assumed to be distributed across multipledistributed processing modules, including at least a subset of theprocessing modules 408C, 408D, 408R and 408M of the distributed storagecontroller 408.

For example, the management module 408M of the storage controller 408may include a replication control logic instance that engagescorresponding replication control logic instances in all of the controlmodules 408C and routing modules 408R in order to implement asynchronous replication process. As indicated above, in someembodiments, the content addressable storage system 405 comprises anXtremIO storage array suitably modified to incorporate differentialscanning functionality as disclosed herein.

In arrangements of this type, the control modules 408C, data modules408D and routing modules 408R of the distributed storage controller 408illustratively comprise respective C-modules, D-modules and R-modules ofthe XtremIO storage array. The one or more management modules 408M ofthe distributed storage controller 408 in such arrangementsillustratively comprise a system-wide management module (“SYM module”)of the XtremIO storage array, although other types and arrangements ofsystem-wide management modules can be used in other embodiments.Accordingly, differential scanning functionality in some embodiments isimplemented under the control of at least one system-wide managementmodule of the distributed storage controller 408, utilizing theC-modules, D-modules and R-modules of the XtremIO storage array.

In the above-described XtremIO storage array example, each user datapage has a fixed size such as 8 KB and its content-based signature is a20-byte signature generated using the SHA1 secure hashing algorithm.Also, each page has a LUN identifier and an offset, and so ischaracterized by <lun_id, offset, signature>.

The content-based signature in the present example comprises acontent-based digest of the corresponding data page. Such acontent-based digest is more particularly referred to as a “hash digest”of the corresponding data page, as the content-based signature isillustratively generated by applying a hash function such as the SHA1secure hashing algorithm to the content of that data page. The full hashdigest of a given data page is given by the above-noted 20-bytesignature. The hash digest may be represented by a corresponding “hashhandle,” which in some cases may comprise a particular portion of thehash digest. The hash handle illustratively maps on a one-to-one basisto the corresponding full hash digest within a designated clusterboundary or other specified storage resource boundary of a given storagesystem. In arrangements of this type, the hash handle provides alightweight mechanism for uniquely identifying the corresponding fullhash digest and its associated data page within the specified storageresource boundary. The hash digest and hash handle are both consideredexamples of “content-based signatures” as that term is broadly usedherein.

Examples of techniques for generating and processing hash handles forrespective hash digests of respective data pages are disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 9,208,162, entitled “Generating a Short Hash Handle,” and U.S.Pat. No. 9,286,003, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Creating a ShortHash Handle Highly Correlated with a Globally-Unique Hash Signature,”both of which are incorporated by reference herein.

As mentioned previously, storage controller components in an XtremIOstorage array illustratively include C-module, D-module and R-modulecomponents. For example, separate instances of such components can beassociated with each of a plurality of storage nodes in a clusteredstorage system implementation.

The distributed storage controller in this example is configured togroup consecutive pages into page groups, to arrange the page groupsinto slices, and to assign the slices to different ones of theC-modules. For example, if there are 1024 slices distributed evenlyacross the C-modules, and there are a total of 16 C-modules in a givenimplementation, each of the C-modules “owns” 1024/16=64 slices. In sucharrangements, different ones of the slices are assigned to differentones of the control modules 408C such that control of the slices withinthe storage controller 408 of the storage system 405 is substantiallyevenly distributed over the control modules 408C of the storagecontroller 408.

The D-module allows a user to locate a given user data page based on itssignature. Each metadata page also has a size of 8 KB and includesmultiple instances of the <lun_id, offset, signature> for respectiveones of a plurality of the user data pages. Such metadata pages areillustratively generated by the C-module but are accessed using theD-module based on a metadata page signature.

The metadata page signature in this embodiment is a 20-byte signaturebut is not based on the content of the metadata page. Instead, themetadata page signature is generated based on an 8-byte metadata pageidentifier that is a function of the LUN identifier and offsetinformation of that metadata page.

If a user wants to read a user data page having a particular LUNidentifier and offset, the corresponding metadata page identifier isfirst determined, then the metadata page signature is computed for theidentified metadata page, and then the metadata page is read using thecomputed signature. In this embodiment, the metadata page signature ismore particularly computed using a signature generation algorithm thatgenerates the signature to include a hash of the 8-byte metadata pageidentifier, one or more ASCII codes for particular predeterminedcharacters, as well as possible additional fields. The last bit of themetadata page signature may always be set to a particular logic value soas to distinguish it from the user data page signature in which the lastbit may always be set to the opposite logic value.

The metadata page signature is used to retrieve the metadata page viathe D-module. This metadata page will include the <lun_id, offset,signature> for the user data page if the user page exists. The signatureof the user data page is then used to retrieve that user data page, alsovia the D-module.

Write requests processed in the content addressable storage system 405each illustratively comprise one or more IO operations directing that atleast one data item of the storage system 405 be written to in aparticular manner. A given write request is illustratively received inthe storage system 405 from a host device over a network. In someembodiments, a write request is received in the distributed storagecontroller 408 of the storage system 405 and directed from oneprocessing module to another processing module of the distributedstorage controller 408. For example, a received write request may bedirected from a routing module 408R of the distributed storagecontroller 408 to a particular control module 408C of the distributedstorage controller 408. Other arrangements for receiving and processingwrite requests from one or more host devices can be used.

As indicated above, the term “write request” as used herein is intendedto be broadly construed, so as to encompass one or more IO operationsdirecting that at least one data item of a storage system be written toin a particular manner. A given write request is illustratively receivedin a storage system from a host device.

In the XtremIO context, the C-modules, D-modules and R-modules of thestorage nodes 415 communicate with one another over a high-speedinternal network such as an InfiniBand network. The C-modules, D-modulesand R-modules coordinate with one another to accomplish various IOprocessing tasks.

The write requests from the host devices identify particular data pagesto be written in the storage system 405 by their corresponding logicaladdresses each comprising a LUN ID and an offset.

As noted above, a given one of the content-based signaturesillustratively comprises a hash digest of the corresponding data page,with the hash digest being generated by applying a hash function to thecontent of that data page. The hash digest may be uniquely representedwithin a given storage resource boundary by a corresponding hash handle.

The content addressable storage system 405 utilizes a two-level mappingprocess to map logical block addresses to physical block addresses. Thefirst level of mapping uses an address-to-hash (“A2H”) table and thesecond level of mapping uses a hash metadata (“HMD”) table, with the A2Hand HMD tables corresponding to respective logical and physical layersof the content-based signature mapping within the content addressablestorage system 405. The HMD table or a given portion thereof in someembodiments disclosed herein is more particularly referred to as ahash-to-data (“H2D”) table.

The first level of mapping using the A2H table associates logicaladdresses of respective data pages with respective content-basedsignatures of those data pages. This is also referred to as logicallayer mapping. The second level of mapping using the HMD tableassociates respective ones of the content-based signatures withrespective physical storage locations in one or more of the storagedevices 106. This is also referred to as physical layer mapping.

Examples of these and other metadata structures utilized in illustrativeembodiments were described above in conjunction with FIG. 2. Theseparticular examples include respective A2H, H2D, HMD and PLB tables. Insome embodiments, the A2H and H2D tables are utilized primarily by thecontrol modules 408C, while the HMD and PLB tables are utilizedprimarily by the data modules 408D.

For a given write request, hash metadata comprising at least a subset ofthe above-noted tables is updated in conjunction with the processing ofthat write request. The A2H, H2D, HMD and PLB tables described above areexamples of what are more generally referred to herein as “mappingtables” of respective distinct types. Other types and arrangements ofmapping tables or other content-based signature mapping information maybe used in other embodiments. Such mapping tables are still moregenerally referred to herein as “metadata structures” of the contentaddressable storage system 405. It should be noted that additional oralternative metadata structures can be used in other embodiments.References herein to particular tables of particular types, such as A2H,H2D, HMD and PLB tables, and their respective configurations, should beconsidered non-limiting and are presented by way of illustrative exampleonly. Such metadata structures can be implemented in numerousalternative configurations with different arrangements of fields andentries in other embodiments.

The logical block addresses or LBAs of a logical layer of the storagesystem 405 correspond to respective physical blocks of a physical layerof the storage system 405. The user data pages of the logical layer areorganized by LBA and have reference via respective content-basedsignatures to particular physical blocks of the physical layer.

Each of the physical blocks has an associated reference count that ismaintained within the storage system 405. The reference count for agiven physical block indicates the number of logical blocks that pointto that same physical block.

In releasing logical address space in the storage system, adereferencing operation is generally executed for each of the LBAs beingreleased. More particularly, the reference count of the correspondingphysical block is decremented. A reference count of zero indicates thatthere are no longer any logical blocks that reference the correspondingphysical block, and so that physical block can be released.

It should also be understood that the particular arrangement of storagecontroller processing modules 408C, 408D, 408R and 408M as shown in theFIG. 4 embodiment is presented by way of example only. Numerousalternative arrangements of processing modules of a distributed storagecontroller may be used to implement differential scanning functionalityin a clustered storage system in other embodiments.

Additional examples of content addressable storage functionalityimplemented in some embodiments by control modules 408C, data modules408D, routing modules 408R and management module(s) 408M of distributedstorage controller 408 can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 9,104,326, entitled“Scalable Block Data Storage Using Content Addressing,” which isincorporated by reference herein. Alternative arrangements of these andother storage node processing modules of a distributed storagecontroller in a content addressable storage system can be used in otherembodiments.

Illustrative embodiments of a storage system with differential scanningfunctionality as disclosed herein can provide a number of significantadvantages relative to conventional 10 arrangements. For example, someembodiments allow efficient differential scanning to be performed evenin those situations in which a first node of a snapshot tree is not anancestor of a second node of the snapshot tree. This includes situationsin which one or more storage volumes of a consistency group are“refreshed” or otherwise restored to previous versions during an ongoingsynchronous replication process, using what is also referred to hereinas “live” restoration of the one or more storage volumes.

Accordingly, illustrative embodiments can provide efficient differentialscanning between any two snapshots in a snapshot tree, regardless ofwhether or not the two snapshots are an ancestor snapshot pair or anon-ancestor snapshot pair. Such arrangements therefore avoid the needto terminate and subsequently restart the replication process in orderto restore one or more storage volumes of a consistency group usingprevious versions.

In some embodiments, the source and target storage systems areillustratively implemented as respective content addressable storagesystems, but in other embodiments one or more of the storage systems caninstead be a traditional storage array, which does not support any typeof content addressable storage functionality, with any missingfunctionality being provided by a host device. Accordingly,functionality for differential scanning of non-ancestor snapshot pairsin synchronous replication as disclosed herein can be implemented in astorage system, in a host device, or partially in a storage system andpartially in a host device.

It is to be appreciated that the particular advantages described aboveand elsewhere herein are associated with particular illustrativeembodiments and need not be present in other embodiments. Also, theparticular types of information processing system features andfunctionality as illustrated in the drawings and described above areexemplary only, and numerous other arrangements may be used in otherembodiments.

Illustrative embodiments of processing platforms utilized to implementhost devices and storage systems with differential scanningfunctionality will now be described in greater detail with reference toFIGS. 5 and 6. Although described in the context of system 100, theseplatforms may also be used to implement at least portions of otherinformation processing systems in other embodiments.

FIG. 5 shows an example processing platform comprising cloudinfrastructure 500. The cloud infrastructure 500 comprises a combinationof physical and virtual processing resources that may be utilized toimplement at least a portion of the information processing system 100.The cloud infrastructure 500 comprises multiple virtual machines (VMs)and/or container sets 502-1, 502-2, . . . 502-L implemented usingvirtualization infrastructure 504. The virtualization infrastructure 504runs on physical infrastructure 505, and illustratively comprises one ormore hypervisors and/or operating system level virtualizationinfrastructure. The operating system level virtualization infrastructureillustratively comprises kernel control groups of a Linux operatingsystem or other type of operating system.

The cloud infrastructure 500 further comprises sets of applications510-1, 510-2, . . . 510L running on respective ones of the VMs/containersets 502-1, 502-2, . . . 502-L under the control of the virtualizationinfrastructure 504. The VMs/container sets 502 may comprise respectiveVMs, respective sets of one or more containers, or respective sets ofone or more containers running in VMs.

In some implementations of the FIG. 5 embodiment, the VMs/container sets502 comprise respective VMs implemented using virtualizationinfrastructure 504 that comprises at least one hypervisor. Suchimplementations can provide differential scanning functionality of thetype described above for one or more processes running on a given one ofthe VMs. For example, each of the VMs can implement replication controllogic and/or snapshot generators for providing differential scanningfunctionality in the system 100.

An example of a hypervisor platform that may be used to implement ahypervisor within the virtualization infrastructure 504 is the VMware®vSphere® which may have an associated virtual infrastructure managementsystem such as the VMware® vCenter™. The underlying physical machinesmay comprise one or more distributed processing platforms that includeone or more storage systems. In other implementations of the FIG. 5embodiment, the VMs/container sets 502 comprise respective containersimplemented using virtualization infrastructure 504 that providesoperating system level virtualization functionality, such as support forDocker containers running on bare metal hosts, or Docker containersrunning on VMs. The containers are illustratively implemented usingrespective kernel control groups of the operating system. Suchimplementations can also provide differential scanning functionality ofthe type described above. For example, a container host devicesupporting multiple containers of one or more container sets canimplement one or more instances of replication control logic and/orsnapshot generators for providing differential scanning functionality inthe system 100.

As is apparent from the above, one or more of the processing modules orother components of system 100 may each run on a computer, server,storage device or other processing platform element. A given suchelement may be viewed as an example of what is more generally referredto herein as a “processing device.” The cloud infrastructure 500 shownin FIG. 5 may represent at least a portion of one processing platform.Another example of such a processing platform is processing platform 600shown in FIG. 6.

The processing platform 600 in this embodiment comprises a portion ofsystem 100 and includes a plurality of processing devices, denoted602-1, 602-2, 602-3, . . . 602-K, which communicate with one anotherover a network 604.

The network 604 may comprise any type of network, including by way ofexample a global computer network such as the Internet, a WAN, a LAN, asatellite network, a telephone or cable network, a cellular network, awireless network such as a WiFi or WiMAX network, or various portions orcombinations of these and other types of networks.

The processing device 602-1 in the processing platform 600 comprises aprocessor 610 coupled to a memory 612. The processor 610 may comprise amicroprocessor, a microcontroller, an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), graphicsprocessing unit (GPU) or other type of processing circuitry, as well asportions or combinations of such circuitry elements.

The memory 612 may comprise random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), flash memory or other types of memory, in any combination. Thememory 612 and other memories disclosed herein should be viewed asillustrative examples of what are more generally referred to as“processor-readable storage media” storing executable program code ofone or more software programs.

Articles of manufacture comprising such processor-readable storage mediaare considered illustrative embodiments. A given such article ofmanufacture may comprise, for example, a storage array, a storage diskor an integrated circuit containing RAM, ROM, flash memory or otherelectronic memory, or any of a wide variety of other types of computerprogram products. The term “article of manufacture” as used hereinshould be understood to exclude transitory, propagating signals.Numerous other types of computer program products comprisingprocessor-readable storage media can be used.

Also included in the processing device 602-1 is network interfacecircuitry 614, which is used to interface the processing device with thenetwork 604 and other system components and may comprise conventionaltransceivers.

The other processing devices 602 of the processing platform 600 areassumed to be configured in a manner similar to that shown forprocessing device 602-1 in the Figure.

Again, the particular processing platform 600 shown in the figure ispresented by way of example only, and system 100 may include additionalor alternative processing platforms, as well as numerous distinctprocessing platforms in any combination, with each such platformcomprising one or more computers, servers, storage devices or otherprocessing devices.

It should therefore be understood that in other embodiments differentarrangements of additional or alternative elements may be used. At leasta subset of these elements may be collectively implemented on a commonprocessing platform, or each such element may be implemented on aseparate processing platform.

As indicated previously, components of an information processing systemas disclosed herein can be implemented at least in part in the form ofone or more software programs stored in memory and executed by aprocessor of a processing device. For example, at least portions of thedifferential scanning functionality of one or more components of astorage system as disclosed herein are illustratively implemented in theform of software running on one or more processing devices.

It should again be emphasized that the above-described embodiments arepresented for purposes of illustration only. Many variations and otheralternative embodiments may be used. For example, the disclosedtechniques are applicable to a wide variety of other types ofinformation processing systems, host devices, storage systems, storagenodes, storage devices, storage controllers, synchronous replicationprocesses, snapshot generators and associated control logic and metadatastructures. Also, the particular configurations of system and deviceelements and associated processing operations illustratively shown inthe drawings can be varied in other embodiments. Moreover, the variousassumptions made above in the course of describing the illustrativeembodiments should also be viewed as exemplary rather than asrequirements or limitations of the disclosure. Numerous otheralternative embodiments within the scope of the appended claims will bereadily apparent to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for performing rollback of a snapshotbetween a source storage system and a target storage system in asynchronous replication session, the method comprising: reassigning acurrent replication source volume to a rollback source snapshot, therollback source snapshot generated for a consistency group thatcomprises a plurality of volumes; performing, for one or more snapshottrees maintained for the consistency group, a differential scan betweena child of the rollback source snapshot and the current replicationsource volume; calculating, from results of the differential scan, adirty tree differential; and for each difference identified in the dirtytree differential: calculating a corresponding volume offset; andinitiating a copy command for the current replication source volume andthe rollback source snapshot, the copy command translated to a remotemetadata copy request in synchronous replication data transfer, whereinexecution of the copy command for each difference in the dirty treedifferential results in the target storage system containing matchingcontent as the source storage system after the rollback.
 2. The methodof claim 1, further comprising suspending host input/output (IO)operations prior to performing the reassigning of the currentreplication source volume to the rollback source snapshot.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein upon reassigning the current replication sourcevolume to the rollback source snapshot, a child of the rollback sourcesnapshot inherits a volume identifier of the current replication sourcevolume, and the current replication source volume receives a new volumeidentifier.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the snapshot treesis associated with one or more additional trees including at least oneof: a dirty tree that characterizes updates to logical addresses of acorresponding one of the volumes; and a hash tree comprisingcontent-based signatures of respective ones of the logical addresses ofthe corresponding one or more of the volumes; wherein an instance of thedifferential scan performed for the one or more snapshot trees comprisesaggregating information of at least one of the dirty tree and the hashtree between designated nodes of the one or more snapshot trees.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein performing the differential scan includesdetermining if a first node corresponding to a previous snapshot is anancestor of a second node corresponding to the current replicationsource volume, the determining comprising: inspecting a path from thesecond node towards a root node of the snapshot tree; responsive to thefirst node being part of the path, determining that the first node is anancestor of the second node; and responsive to the first node not beingpart of the path, determining that the first node is not an ancestor ofthe second node.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein performing thedifferential scan further includes altering a manner in which aninstance of the differential scan is performed for the one or moresnapshot trees responsive to a result of the determination, comprising:performing a first type of differential scan comprising aggregating nodemetadata of a path from the second node to the first node responsive tothe first node being an ancestor of the second node; and performing asecond type of differential scan different than the first type ofdifferential scan responsive to the first node not being an ancestor ofthe second node, the second type of differential scan comprising:identifying a first path from the first node to a root node; identifyinga second path from the second node to the root node; determining alowest common ancestor between the first and second paths; combining thefirst and second paths at the lowest common ancestor; and aggregatingnode metadata of the combined first and second paths.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the copy command is a Small Computer System Interface(SCSI)-based extended copy command that comprises the volume offset, asource logical unit, a source logical block address range, a targetlogical unit, and a target logical block address range, wherein the copycommand is executed by the target storage system.
 8. A system forperforming rollback of a snapshot between a source storage system and atarget storage system in a synchronous replication session, the systemcomprising: a memory comprising computer-executable instructions; and aprocessor operable by a storage system, the processor executing thecomputer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructionswhen executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operationscomprising: reassigning a current replication source volume to arollback source snapshot, the rollback source snapshot generated for aconsistency group that comprises a plurality of volumes; performing, forone or more snapshot trees maintained for the consistency group, adifferential scan between a child of the rollback source snapshot andthe current replication source volume; calculating, from results of thedifferential scan, a dirty tree differential; and for each differenceidentified in the dirty tree differential: calculating a correspondingvolume offset; and initiating a copy command for the current replicationsource volume and the rollback source snapshot, the copy commandtranslated to a remote metadata copy request in a synchronousreplication data transfer, wherein execution of the copy command foreach difference in the dirty tree differential results in the targetstorage system containing matching content as the source storage systemafter the rollback.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the operationsfurther comprise suspending host input/output (IO) operations prior toperforming the reassigning of the current replication source volume tothe rollback source snapshot.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein uponreassigning the current replication source volume to the rollback sourcesnapshot a child of the rollback source snapshot inherits a volumeidentifier of the current replication source volume, and the currentreplication source volume receives a new volume identifier.
 11. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein one of the snapshot trees is associated withone or more additional trees including at least one of: a dirty treethat characterizes updates to logical addresses of a corresponding oneof the volumes; and a hash tree comprising content-based signatures ofrespective ones of the logical addresses of the corresponding one ormore of the volumes; wherein an instance of the differential scanperformed for the one or more snapshot trees comprises aggregatinginformation of at least one of the dirty tree and the hash tree betweendesignated nodes of the one or more snapshot trees.
 12. The system ofclaim 8, wherein performing the differential scan includes determiningif a first node corresponding to a previous snapshot is an ancestor of asecond node corresponding to the current replication source volume, thedetermining comprising: inspecting a path from the second node towards aroot node of the snapshot tree; responsive to the first node being partof the path, determining that the first node is an ancestor of thesecond node; and responsive to the first node not being part of thepath, determining that the first node is not an ancestor of the secondnode.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein performing the differentialscan further includes altering a manner in which an instance of thedifferential scan is performed for the one or more snapshot treesresponsive to a result of the determination, comprising: performing afirst type of differential scan comprising aggregating node metadata ofa path from the second node to the first node responsive to the firstnode being an ancestor of the second node; and performing a second typeof differential scan different than the first type of differential scanresponsive to the first node not being an ancestor of the second node,the second type of differential scan comprising: identifying a firstpath from the first node to a root node; identifying a second path fromthe second node to the root node; determining a lowest common ancestorbetween the first and second paths; combining the first and second pathsat the lowest common ancestor; and aggregating node metadata of thecombined first and second paths.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein thecopy command is a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)-based extendedcopy command that comprises the volume offset, a source logical unit, asource logical block address range, a target logical unit, and a targetlogical block address range, wherein the copy command is executed by thetarget storage system.
 15. A computer program product for performingrollback of a snapshot between a source storage system and a targetstorage system in a synchronous replication session, the computerprogram product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium,the computer program product including instructions that, when executedby a computer, causes the computer to perform operations comprising:reassigning a current replication source volume to a rollback sourcesnapshot, the rollback source snapshot generated for a consistency groupthat comprises a plurality of volumes; performing, for one or moresnapshot trees maintained for the consistency group, a differential scanbetween a child of the rollback source snapshot and the currentreplication source volume; calculating, from results of the differentialscan, a dirty tree differential; and for each difference identified inthe dirty tree differential: calculating a corresponding volume offset;and initiating a copy command for the current replication source volumeand the rollback source snapshot, the copy command translated to aremote metadata copy request in a synchronous replication data transfer,wherein execution of the copy command for each difference in the dirtytree differential results in the target storage system containingmatching content as the source storage system after the rollback. 16.The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the operations furthercomprise suspending host input/output (IO) operations prior toperforming the reassigning of the current replication source volume tothe rollback source snapshot.
 17. The computer program product of claim15, wherein upon reassigning the current replication source volume tothe rollback source snapshot a child of the rollback source snapshotinherits a volume identifier of the current replication source volume,and the current replication source volume receives a new volumeidentifier.
 18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein one ofthe snapshot trees is associated with one or more additional treesincluding at least one of: a dirty tree that characterizes updates tological addresses of a corresponding one of the volumes; and a hash treecomprising content-based signatures of respective ones of the logicaladdresses of the corresponding one or more of the volumes; wherein aninstance of the differential scan performed for the one or more snapshottrees comprises aggregating information of at least one of the dirtytree and the hash tree between designated nodes of the one or moresnapshot trees.
 19. The computer program product of claim 15, whereinperforming the differential scan includes determining if a first nodecorresponding to a previous snapshot is an ancestor of a second nodecorresponding to the current replication source volume, the determiningcomprising: inspecting a path from the second node towards a root nodeof the snapshot tree; responsive to the first node being part of thepath, determining that the first node is an ancestor of the second node;and responsive to the first node not being part of the path, determiningthat the first node is not an ancestor of the second node.
 20. Thecomputer program product of claim 19, wherein performing thedifferential scan further includes altering a manner in which aninstance of the differential scan is performed for the one or moresnapshot trees responsive to a result of the determination, comprising:performing a first type of differential scan comprising aggregating nodemetadata of a path from the second node to the first node responsive tothe first node being an ancestor of the second node; and performing asecond type of differential scan different than the first type ofdifferential scan responsive to the first node not being an ancestor ofthe second node, the second type of differential scan comprising:identifying a first path from the first node to a root node; identifyinga second path from the second node to the root node; determining alowest common ancestor between the first and second paths; combining thefirst and second paths at the lowest common ancestor; and aggregatingnode metadata of the combined first and second paths.